Multicentre international study of capecitabine +/- bevacizumab as adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer

This study looks at the effects of the drug capecitabine with or without bevacizumab in the treatment of patients with stage III colorectal cancer. You can join this study if you have cancer of the back passage (rectum) or large bowel (colon). Trial details: Participants will be divided into two groups. One group will receive oral capecitabine (from day 1 to day 14, rest for 7 days then repeat every 3 weekly for a total of 8 cycles), plus intravenous(IV) bevacizumab (one dose on day 1, repeated every 3 weekly for 16 cycles). The other group will receive capecitabine alone (from day 1 to day 14, rest for 7 days then repeat every 3 weekly for a total of 8 cycles), which is standard treatment. New preventative chemotherapies have been developed to reduce the risk of relapse of colorectal cancer. QUASAR2 uses a new combination of an oral chemotherapy drug (capecitabine) and a molecularly targeted therapy (bevacizumab), to determine whether this is more effective and less toxic than capecitabine alone. Colorectal cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in Australia (excluding non-melanomic skin cancer), and the second most common cancer-related cause of death, responsible for 4,447 deaths in 2003 (1) As many as 40% of patients who undergo potentially curative treatment will ultimately relapse and die of metastatic disease. This observation has led to the development of adjuvant chemotherapies which reduce the risk of relapse. QUASAR2 uses a new combination for adjuvant therapy: an oral chemotherapy drug (capecitabine) and a molecularly targeted therapy (bevacizumab), to define whether this is superior in efficacy and less in toxicity than capecitabine alone, which is a standard of care in this disease.